BBC - History - British History in depth: The Glorious Revolution Print this page Fear of Catholic tyranny The Glorious Revolution of 1688-1689 replaced the reigning king, James II, with the joint monarchy of his protestant daughter Mary and her Dutch husband, William of Orange. It was the keystone of the Whig (those opposed to a Catholic succession) history of Britain. According to the Whig account, the events of the revolution were bloodless and the revolution settlement established the supremacy of parliament over the crown, setting Britain on the path towards constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. But it ignores the extent to which the events of 1688 constituted a foreign invasion of England by another European power, the Dutch Republic. Although bloodshed in England was limited, the revolution was only secured in Ireland and Scotland by force and with much loss of life. England would become merely a satellite state, under the control of an all-powerful Catholic monarch. Moreover, the British causes of the revolution were as much religious as political. Indeed, the immediate constitutional impact of the revolution settlement was minimal.

Nonetheless, over the course of the reign of William III (1689-1702) society underwent significant and long-lasting changes. To understand why James II’s most powerful subjects eventually rose up in revolt against him we need to understand the deep-seated fear of 'popery' in Stuart England. 'Popery' meant more than just a fear or hatred of Catholics and the Catholic church. It reflected a widely-held belief in an elaborate conspiracy theory, that Catholics were actively plotting the overthrow of church and state. In their place would be established a Catholic tyranny, with England becoming merely a satellite state, under the control of an all-powerful Catholic monarch, (in the era of the Glorious Revolution, identified with Louis XIV of France). This conspiracy theory was given credibility by the existence of some genuine catholic subterfuge, most notably the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. A new crisis of ‘popery and arbitrary government' erupted in the late 1670s. Public anxieties were raised by the issue of the royal succession. Charles II fathered no legitimate offspring.

This meant that the crown would pass to his brother, James, Duke of York, whose conversion to Catholicism had become public knowledge in 1673. Public concern about the succession reached fever pitch in the years 1678-1681. The so-called ‘exclusion crisis’ was provoked by allegations made by Titus Oates, a former Jesuit novice, of a popish plot to assassinate Charles II and place his brother on the throne. The fantastical plot was given credibility by the mysterious death of Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey, the magistrate who first investigated Oates’ claims. Whig politicians within parliament, led by the earl of Shaftesbury, promoted exclusion bills which would have prevented James from succeeding to the throne. But the radical tactics deployed by the king’s opponents, including mass petitions and demonstrations, gradually alienated some initial supporters of exclusion. Charles’s hand was strengthened further by an agreement with France reached in March 1681, by which the king received £385,000 over three years. With this financial support, and with public opinion turning against his critics, Charles was able to dissolve parliament on 28 March 1681.

Top Rebellion and revolt James II © James II’s authority appeared to be secure when he succeeded to the throne in February 1685. The king’s initial promises to defend the existing government in church and state reassured many of those worried by his personal faith. James was well-off financially, with a tax revenue over £1,200,000. The manipulation of borough charters in the last years of Charles II’s reign ensured that James’ first parliament was dominated by loyal Tories. Parliament also voted James considerable emergency sums to suppress the rebellion raised by Charles II’s eldest illegitimate son, the duke of Monmouth in June 1685. James’ army of professional soldiers easily crushed the 3,000 to 4,000 rebels who joined Monmouth’s cause. Initial support for the king ebbed away as it became clear that he wished to secure not only freedom of worship for Catholics, but also the removal of the Test and Corporation Acts so that they could occupy public office. Unease at the king’s appointment of Catholic officers to the army forced him to prorogue parliament on 20 November 1685.

In April 1687, James issued a declaration of indulgence, suspending penal laws against Catholics. James then attempted to secure his religious objectives through the use of his prerogative powers. The test case of Godden vs Hales (1686) established James’ right to suspend the provisions of the Test Acts, thereby allowing the king to appoint a number of Catholic peers to his Privy Council. In April 1687, James issued a declaration of indulgence, suspending penal laws against Catholics and granting toleration to some Protestant dissenters. In the summer of 1687, James formally dissolved his parliament and began canvassing officials across the country regarding their support for the formal repeal of the Test Acts. The information was used to begin a purge of corporations, aimed at producing a pliable parliament which would agree to the king’s wishes. These measures met with increasing opposition from the Anglican-Tory establishment. In July, members of Magdalen College, Oxford were stripped of their fellowships for refusing to appoint the king’s choice, Samuel Parker, a bishop who supported the repeal of the Test Acts, as their college president.

In May of 1688, seven leading bishops, including William Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, refused to follow the order to read the king’s second declaration of indulgence from their pulpits. James responded by having them arrested for seditious libel and taken to the Tower of London. Their acquittal at trial was met with widespread public rejoicing. Top Dutch invasion The Anglican campaign against James II’s religious policies went no further than passive resistance. But a number of English peers including the earls of Danby and Halifax, and Henry Compton, Bishop of London, went further, making contact with the Dutch leader, William of Orange. Two factors moved James II’s opponents to urge William to intervene militarily. Firstly, after years of trying, James’ Catholic second wife finally fell pregnant. The birth of a healthy male heir, James Edward Stuart, on 10 June 1688, dashed hopes that the crown would soon pass to James’s protestant daughter Mary. Secondly, William’s co-conspirators believed that the parliament James planned to summon in the autumn would repeal the Test Acts. William’s main reason for interfering in English affairs was pragmatic – to bring England into his war against France.

The grave danger posed to the Protestant succession and the Anglican establishment led seven peers to write to William on 30 June 1688, pledging their support to the prince if he brought a force into England against James. William had already begun making military preparations for an invasion of England before this letter was sent. Indeed, the letter itself mainly served a propaganda purpose, to allow the prince of Orange to present his intervention as a mercy mission. In fact, William’s main reason for interfering in English affairs was essentially pragmatic – he wished to bring England into his war against Louis XIV’s France and a free parliament was seen as more likely to support this. The forces that the prince of Orange amassed for his invasion were vast, the flotilla consisting of 43 men-of-war, four light frigates and 10 fireships protecting over 400 flyboats capable of carrying 21,000 soldiers. All in all, it was an armada four times the size of that launched by the Spanish in 1588.

Top Revolution Aided by the so-called ‘Protestant wind’ which prevented James’ navy from intercepting the Dutch fleet, William landed at Torbay, Devon, on 5 November 1688, the exact timing of his landfall neatly fitting with the anniversary of another celebrated moment when the nation was delivered from popery. James had made military preparations for the defence of England over the summer and autumn of 1688 and his army encamped on Hounslow Heath was, at about 25,000 men, numerically larger than the force brought over by William. For the first time since the 1640s, England was faced with the prospect of civil war. News of the prince’s arrival had sparked off waves of anti-Catholic rioting in towns and cities across England. The civil unrest convinced James to leave London and bring out his forces to meet the invading army in a pitched battle. James made his first attempt to escape, but was captured by Kent fishermen near Sheerness. But the Orangist conspiracy against James had been maturing for years and had infiltrated James’ own army, with the king’s nephew, Lord Cornbury, one of the first to defect to William.

At this point, James’ health also deserted him. He was frequently debilitated by heavy nosebleeds. Having reached Salisbury on 19 November with the intention of resisting William’s advance, James had by the 23 November resolved to retreat back to London. The desertions continued, with the defection of John Churchill, later Duke of Marlborough, and James’ son-in-law, the Prince of Denmark on 24 November. The final betrayal came on the king’s return to his capital on the 26 November when he discovered that his daughter, Princess Anne had also absconded to join the Orangist side. James now announced that he was willing to agree to William’s main demand - to call a ‘free’ parliament. However, the king was now convinced that his own life was in danger and was making preparations to flee the country. Meanwhile, William’s advance upon the capital had met with some resistance - a bloody skirmish at Reading on 7 December with over 50 killed. On 11 December, in the wake of renewed anti-Catholic rioting in London, James made his first attempt to escape, but was captured by Kent fishermen near Sheerness.

The king’s capture was an inconvenience for William, who was now looked upon as the only individual capable of restoring order to the country, and on 23 December, with the prince’s connivance, James successfully fled the country. The ‘convention parliament’, made up of members from Charles II’s last parliament, convened on 22 January 1689. After considerable pressure from William himself, parliament agreed that he would rule as joint monarch with Mary, rather than act merely as her consort, and on 13 February William and Mary formally accepted the throne. Before they were offered the crown, William and Mary were presented with a document called the Declaration of Rights, later enshrined in law as the Bill of Rights, which affirmed a number of constitutional principles, such as the illegality of prerogative suspending and dispensing powers, the prohibition of taxation without parliamentary consent and the need for regular parliaments. In reality, the Bill of Rights placed few real restrictions on the crown. It was not until 1694 that the call for regular parliaments was backed up by the Triennial Act.

Pressure from William also ensured the passage in May 1689 of the Toleration Act, granting many Protestant groups, but not Catholics, freedom of worship. This toleration was, however, considerably more limited than that envisaged by James II. Top Consequences If we take the revolution to encompass the whole of William III’s reign, it certainly imposed limitations on royal authority. Parliament gained powers over taxation, over the royal succession, over appointments and over the right of the crown to wage war independently, concessions that William thought were a price worth paying in return for parliament’s financial support for his war against France. William’s wars profoundly changed the British state. Their massive cost led not only to growth of modern financial institutions – most notably the Bank of England founded in 1694 – but also to greater scrutiny of crown expenditure through parliamentary committees of accounts. The bureaucracy required to harvest all this money grew exponentially too. In Ireland and Scotland, the settlements were extremely politically and religiously divisive. The revolution’s legacy might be seen as negative in other ways. In Ireland and Scotland, the revolution was militarily contested and its settlements extremely politically and religiously divisive.

For example, Irish Protestants disregarded the generous peace terms of the Treaty of Limerick (3 October 1691) and established a monopoly over land-ownership and political power. The revolution also failed to limit the power of parliaments and created no body of protected constitutional law. Therefore the Septennial Act of 1716 was able to effectively undermine the terms of the 1694 Triennial Act, ushering in the lengthy rule of a Whig oligarchy. The revolution also fostered the growth of slavery by ending the Royal African Company’s monopoly on the trade in 1698. For the non-white inhabitants of the British Atlantic empire, the Glorious Revolution represented not the broadening of freedom but the expansion of servitude. William III by T Claydon (Longman, 2002) Revolution: The Great Crisis of the British Monarchy by T Harris (Allen Lane, 2006) The Anglo-Dutch Moment: Essays on the Glorious Revolution and its World Impact by J Israel ed.

(Cambridge University Press, 2003) The Glorious Revolution by J Miller (Longman, 2nd edn., 1999) The Glorious Revolution: A Brief History with Documents by SC A Pincus (St. Martin’s Press, 2005) England in the 1690s by C Rose (Blackwell, 1999) James II by WA Speck (Longman, 2002) The Glorious Revolution: 1688 and Britain’s Fight for Liberty by E Vallance (Little, Brown and Co, 2006) Top About the author Dr Edward Vallance is Lecturer in Early Modern British History at the University of Liverpool. He works on seventeenth-century British political and religious history and is the author of Revolutionary England and the National Covenant: State Oaths, Protestantism and the Political Nation, 1553-1682 (Boydell, 2005) and The Glorious Revolution: 1688 and Britain's Fight for Liberty (Little, Brown and Co, 2006).

He is currently writing a history of English radicalism from Magna Carta to the present day. BBC - History - James II z James II © James was a Stuart king of England, Scotland and Ireland who in 1688 was overthrown in the 'Glorious Revolution' by William III. James was born on 14 October 1633 to Charles I and his French wife, Henrietta Maria and was named after his grandfather, James I and VI. During the English Civil War he was captured but fled to exile on the continent. He distinguished himself a soldier, returning to England at the Restoration of his brother, Charles II, in 1660. He commanded the Royal Navy from1660 to1673. In 1660, James married Anne Hyde, daughter of Charles II's chief minister and they had two surviving children, Mary and Anne. In 1669, James converted to Catholicism and took a stand against a number of anti-Catholic moves, including the Test Act of 1673. This did not impede his succession to the throne on Charles' death in 1685.

Later that year James faced rebellion, led by Charles II's illegitimate son the Duke of Monmouth. The rebellion was easily crushed after the battle of Sedgemoor in 1685, and savage punishments were imposed by the infamous lord chief justice, Judge Jeffreys, at the 'Bloody Assizes'. Monmouth himself was messily beheaded. This, together with James's attempts to give civic equality to Roman Catholic and Protestant dissenters, led to conflict with parliament. In 1685, James prorogued it and ruled alone. He attempted to promote Catholicism by appointing Catholics to military, political and academic posts. In 1687, he issued a Declaration of Indulgence aiming at complete religious toleration and instructed Anglican clergy to read it from their pulpits. In June 1688, James's second wife Mary of Modena, gave birth to a son, James Francis Edward. Fearing that a Catholic succession was now assured, a group of Protestant nobles appealed to William of Orange, husband of James's older, and Protestant, daughter Mary. In November, William landed with an army in Devon.

Deserted by an army and navy who he had completely alienated, James completely lost his nerve and fled abroad. In February 1689, parliament declared that James's flight constituted an abdication and William and Mary were crowned joint monarchs. In March 1689, James landed in Ireland where, with French support, he raised an army. He was defeated by William at the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690. James died in exile in Saint-Germain in France on 16 September 1701. British Literature Wiki - Religion, Politics, and the Glorious Revolution of 1688 Religion, Politics, and the Glorious Revolution of 1688 Religion, Politics, and the Glorious Revolution of 1688 King James II of England - G. Kneller (1684) Under the short rule of King James II from 6 February 1685 to 11 December 1688, England would soon find out what sort of nation it has been in the past, and what sort of nation it wanted to be in the future.

King James II views on the Protestant faith versus Catholicism and his position regarding the 'Divine Right of Kings' would eventually pave the way for a glorious yet bloodless revolution in 1688. Table of Contents References Religious Background For almost a thousand years, Rome influenced the Church of England; Catholicism infiltrating and affecting just about every aspect of life: trade, contracts, marriage etc. A century before the Glorious Revolution, England, under the rule of King Henry VIII adopted it's own form of Catholicism namely Anglicism. During the 17th century, the whole of Europe was inflamed with war and under a constant struggle to establish a unified church under a unified empire. The Holy Roman Empire was slowly loosing it's grip on distant countries, and with it, control. During King Charles II's 25 year reign over England, shortly before the revolution, tensions slowly began to grow being that he did not have a legitimate issue to become heir to the throne. That implied that the crown would pass to his Catholic brother James which in turn incited the fear of absolute rule, popery, slavery, and subjugation to France and Rome.

In order to "extenuate royal indulgence, and to defuse the anxiety of his subjects", King Charles II commissioned then Poet Laureate John Dryden to compose what would become a "menacing masterpiece" named "Absalom and Achitophel" which wove together "the Bible and contemporary politics" as a work of propaganda, and ultimately cost him his position after the revolution commenced.[ 1 ] Political Background King James II brought many tensions between the people of England because of the political changes that he made while he reigned as king. Coming into power as a Catholic already brought many concerns to the people because they feared popery and Catholic tyranny. However, he assured the people that he beliefs would not contribute to his manner in leading the country. Soon after the beginning of his reign, all that began to change. First, King James II allowed Catholics to hold place as officers in the armed forces in November of 1685. Next, the king suspended the Test Acts and therefore allowed him to appoint Catholics as members of his council. In April of 1687, King James passed the Declaration of Indulgence Act which removed all laws against the rights of the Catholics.

All of these acts led people to begin to oppose the reign of King James II. Many people rebelled such as seven leading bishops who refused the king's orders to read his second Declaration of Indulgence. These bishops were arrested their rebellion. All of this lead the people of England to search for a new leader in fear of a Catholic monarchy. Conspiracy Many politicians were on a mission to remove King James II from the throne. In order to do this, they had to devise a plan, also know as, a conspiracy. This conspiracy became so popular that there were several names which grew from from its leader, William Orange. Prince Orange, the husband of Queen Mary (King James II's daughter), was at the forefront of this plan. For this reason, many called this conspiracy as the Orange Card or the Orangist Conspiracy. During the year of 1688, those involved had one main goal: to have the king change his pro-Catholic policies or remove him from the throne.Their plan led them to overthrow the government. Overthrow of the Government King William & Queen Mary - R. White (1703) King James II was a devout Catholic, and he wanted to increase the power that the Catholics had in England.

He began to replace any men of power that were not Catholic, especially Protestants and Anglicans. These Protestants and Anglicans were continually being suppressed more and more and feared that King James and his son would be the start of a Roman Catholic dynasty. William of Orange was a Dutch Protestant that married King James' daughter, Mary Stuart II, even though it was opposed because her family wanted her to marry into the French throne line. The people invited William of Orange to come and invade England twice, and he refused. On the third time, he accepted and led a large force to invade England in November of 1688. With just a couple minor skirmishes, King James' regime had collapsed and he escaped custody while dressed as a woman[ 2 ] and fled the country with his wife. There were very few casualties, no major battles, and the invasion was very short; and therefore, this revolution is sometimes referred to as the Bloodless Revolution. New Religious Government By threatening to withdraw his troops from England and leave the country with no stability, the parliament decided to make William and his wife Mary joint sovereigns of the nation of England.

William made it impossible for any Catholics to vote or hold a seat in the parliament, and made the law, which is still in order today, that the monarch could not be a Catholic or marry someone who was a Catholic. William signed the proposed Bill of Rights that guaranteed certain rights to the citizens of the nation, and he began the change in the English parliamentary to a more democratic one. William's overthrow of King James and signing of the Bill of Rights made James' rule the last time that the monarch of England held absolute power. England now had a Protestant monarchy and a system that recognized the importance of Parliament in governing. The effects of the New Government The long-term positive effects that King William III enacted took some time to show. The short term effects through, were war with France, and the accompanying financial strain. The tax and fiscal innovation set in place by King William III ultimately led to the formation of the Bank of England, but It wasn't until his successor, Queen Anne, reigned over England that the financial burden was lifted, allowing domestic and foreign trade to flourish.

This is evident in Alexander Pope's pastoral "Windsor-Forrest" on line 327 and 328: "At length great ANNA said - "Let Discord cease!" \ She said, the world obeyed, and all was Peace!"[ 3 ] By the early 1720's, the effects of the 'Bill of Rights' were starting to be understood very well by cabinet minister Robert Walpole who managed to "cement the displacement of monarch by minister". Instead of simply advising the king, Walpole effectively managed the king, and in essence ran the state. He was given the title Prime Minister as an insult to point out the obvious, but the title remains to this day.[ 4 ] Significant People Involved in the Glorious Revolution King James II of England "At midnight on 14th October, 1633, Henrietta Maria, Queen of England, gave birth to [King Charles I's second] son at St James's Palace."[ 5 ] That son would later be known as the fifth creation of the Duke of York, Lord High Admiral, and ultimately, King James II.

He promised to honor the national church and not to force religious uniformity during his reign, but his actions eventually led to the imposition of Catholic officers being staffed within the royal army, and the placement of Catholic officials in Oxford University. His 'Declaration of Toleration' was mandated to be read from Anglican pulpits. These actions along with the birth of his son James Francis Edward Stuart, brought the prospect of a long line of Catholic succession to the English throne, and proved to be too much for the English to bear.[ 6 ] James (only son of King James) Born on June 10, 1688, the birth of King James II only son was a major catalyst to push the events of the Glorious Revolution into existence. When Queen Mary gave birth to her son, the people of England were alarmed and frightened because there was now a Catholic heir to the throne. This caused the people of England to desperately seek the aid of William III to intervene and take over as king.

While William III was asked several times to invade England in order to remove King James from power, it was not until the birth of James did he feel it was absolutely necessary to take action and "save the protestant religion," as well as his position as the successor to the throne. William III (William of Orange) and wife, Queen Mary II William of Orange was the son-in-law of King James II. As a protestant young man he married Mary (the daughter of King James II) and therefore secured his place as the successor to the throne. After receiving pressure from England's politicians, William built up an army and invaded England in November of 1688. Below is an informative video of several significant authors in this whose writing reflect the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution. While some of them did not live in the time when it occurred, that drastic change in the political make of England impacted authors all over Europe. BRIA 25 3 England Glorious Revolution - Constitutional Rights Foundation BRIA 25 3 England Glorious Revolution CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS FOUNDATION Bill of Rights in Action SPRING 2010 (Volume 25, No.

3) England’s Glorious Revolution | John Maynard Keynes and the Revolution in Economic Thought | William Jennings Bryan, the “Great Commoner” England’s Glorious Revolution England’s Glorious Revolution was complex. It involved a struggle for power between a Catholic king and Protestant Parliament, a fight over religious and civil liberties, differences between emerging political parties, and a foreign invasion. In 1534, King Henry VIII broke away from the Roman Catholic faith and created the Protestant Church of England (also called the Anglican Church). Henry established the Anglican faith as the official religion of England and made himself and future English monarchs head of the church. Henry, rather than the Catholic pope, appointed the country’s top religious leaders and decided how people would practice Christianity in the kingdom. Henry had broken from the Catholic Church after the pope refused to grant him a divorce. Henry did not object much to the Catholic faith itself. Therefore, he continued many Catholic beliefs and practices in the Church of England. Henry’s break with the Catholic Church set off a long period of religious turmoil in England. One of Henry’s daughters, Mary, remained a Catholic. When she became queen, she tried to force England to return to Catholicism.

Mary ordered hundreds of Protestants burned at the stake as heretics, earning her the name “Bloody Mary.” Elizabeth, another of Henry’s daughters, took the throne after Mary’s death in 1558. Queen Elizabeth I, a Protestant, restored the Church of England, which then became a powerful force in English society and politics. By the early 1600s, increasing numbers of English Protestants, known as Puritans, wanted to “purify” or get rid of many lingering elements of Catholic worship in the Church of England. The Puritans wanted a much simpler form of worship and the right to elect ministers for their own congregation. But when Charles I became king in 1625, he tried to force the Puritans to conform to Anglican worship practices. Charles provoked great hostility from Parliament, dominated by Puritans. In 1642, a civil war began between the supporters of Charles, called Cavaliers, and the Puritan supporters of Parliament. The Puritans, led by Oliver Cromwell, defeated Charles in 1648 and beheaded him. Fighting continued for a few years.

The king’s son, also named Charles, fled to France when Cromwell finally crushed the remaining Cavalier armies. The Puritan Parliament abolished the monarchy and established a republic called the Commonwealth. As commander-in-chief, Cromwell reluctantly took on the role of Lord Protector of England. Cromwell and Parliament set up a new official state Puritan Church to replace the Church of England. But Cromwell also permitted Anglicans and Catholics to practice their faiths. The Puritan Parliament proved ineffective, and in 1658, Cromwell died. Tired of Puritan rule, the English people wanted a king to lead them again. In 1660, Parliament restored the monarchy with the son of the beheaded king ruling as Charles II. Charles II After Charles II took the throne, a new Parliament met. The Cavaliers, those who had backed Charles I in the Civil War, controlled both the elected House of Commons and the appointed House of Lords. Parliament quickly acted to restore the Church of England and its Anglican worship as the state religion. The Cavaliers believed that Catholics and Protestant Dissenters like Congregationalists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Puritans, and Quakers wanted to destroy the Church of England.

Therefore, Parliament enacted new harsh criminal laws to punish Protestant Dissenters and Catholics for worshipping openly. Charles II attempted to heal the divisions of the Civil War by adopting a policy of religious tolerance. In 1672 without the consent of Parliament, he issued a Declaration of Indulgence. This suspended all religious criminal laws, issued licenses to Protestant Dissenters to meet publicly, and allowed Catholics to worship in their homes. His declaration outraged the Cavalier Parliament. It threatened to withhold its consent for the king’s requests for money and forced Charles to withdraw his declaration. The next year, Parliament passed the Test Act. It prevented the king from appointing Protestant Dissenters and Catholics to any government or military post. A second Test Act soon followed, prohibiting Catholics from holding seats in either house of Parliament. These laws tested the religious beliefs of individuals by requiring them to take the sacrament of Holy Communion in an Anglican church. In 1678, word of a “Popish Plot” to kill the king and massacre Protestants terrified England. The plot turned out to be a fake, but Protestants began to worry about the next person in line to inherit the throne. Charles had fathered only illegitimate children.

If he died without a legitimate heir, his brother, James, would become king. Parliament attempted to pass a law excluding James from inheriting the crown because he had converted to Catholicism. During the drawn out debate over excluding James, members of Parliament divided into political parties, Tories and Whigs. These were not highly organized parties designed to campaign for the election of political candidates. (Highly organized modern political parties were first created in the United States in the early 1800s.) Nevertheless, in the late 1600s, the Whigs and Tories were the first parties to rally around sets of principles in a lawmaking body. Their basic principles were: Tories The monarch is the supreme power, answerable only to God, and must not be resisted. But the monarch is also bound by the law. The monarchy is based on hereditary succession. The Church of England is the established state church. No religious toleration for Catholics or Protestant Dissenters should be permitted. Whigs The monarch shares power with Parliament. Both are answerable to the people and bound by the law. The hereditary succession may be overridden by the common good. The Church of England retains too many Catholic practices and should be further reformed.

Toleration for Protestant Dissenters, but not for Catholics, should be permitted. The Whigs controlled the elected House of Commons and took the lead in the attempt to exclude James from succeeding his brother as king. The Whigs argued that James would rule as a dictator like France’s Catholic King Louis XIV. The more conservative Tories dominated the House of Lords and objected to overturning England’s tradition of a hereditary monarchy. Although they, too, dreaded a Catholic king, the Tories still blocked the exclusion bills proposed by the Whigs. The exclusion attempt finally ended when Charles, who opposed it, refused to call a new Parliament after 1681. James II and Toleration In 1685, Charles II died, and his brother became king, reigning as James II. Surprisingly, English Protestants welcomed their new Catholic king. Many sided with the Tories and believed even a Catholic king was better than another civil war over the monarchy. James assured his subjects that he would “preserve this government both in church and state as it is now by law established.” Catholics made up only about 1 percent of the English population. But James believed that, if instructed properly, Protestants would voluntarily convert to Catholicism as he himself had done.

Shortly after James took the throne, the Duke of Monmouth, one of Charles II’s illegitimate sons, led a rebellion to make himself king. James formed an army and defeated him. Known as the Bloody Assizes, a series of trials followed, and hundreds of rebels were executed. James violated custom and did not disband his army after the threat passed. Instead, he created a peacetime standing (permanent professional) army organized and trained like that of Louis XIV. James stationed his troops throughout England, frequently quartering them in private homes and inns. This caused resentment and fears that James would someday use this standing army against his subjects. Meanwhile, James had formed a council of top government advisers who were nearly all Catholics. James attended Catholic mass in the royal palace. He also encouraged English Catholics to worship openly in public meetings even though this was illegal under the criminal laws passed by Parliament. In addition, James approved the building of Catholic chapels and schools. He allowed the printing of Catholic Bibles and other religious publications. He welcomed Catholic missionaries from France and other European countries. While all this was going on, James attempted to persuade Parliament to repeal the criminal laws and Test Acts that discriminated against both Catholics and Protestant Dissenters.

Parliament refused and called for the rigorous enforcement of these laws. James then dissolved Parliament and ruled without it. In 1686, James forged a political alliance with dissenting Protestants such as the Quakers led by William Penn. James promised them religious freedom in exchange for supporting his effort to secure the same for his fellow Catholics. Acting on his own, James suspended enforcement of the criminal laws banning public worship by Catholics and Protestant Dissenters. He also dispensed with the enforcement of the Test Acts when he appointed Catholics and Dissenters to government and military posts. His actions enraged Parliament. Whigs and some Tories argued that the king could not lawfully suspend or dispense with laws without Parliament’s consent. James replied that suspending and dispensing with laws were part of the king’s inherited powers. James replaced judges with those friendly to his policies. He won a court decision, taking his side of the controversy. Next, James set out to pack a new Parliament with Protestant Dissenters and other allies. He sent spies to report on the political views of local officials who usually ran for seats in the House of Commons. If they opposed his policies, he replaced them.

He also cracked down on speech, press, and other civil liberties to smother criticism of him and his government. He angered Protestants by ordering them to disarm. James set up a Commission for Ecclesiastical (religious) Causes to punish Anglican clergy who defied his orders not to preach against Catholicism. He also forced colleges at Oxford to accept Catholic students. In 1688, seven Church of England bishops sent a petition to James, protesting his order to read one of his declarations on toleration from their pulpits. James had them put on trial for “seditious libel” (inciting people to overthrow the government). A jury, however, acquitted the bishops to the cheers of those in the courtroom and throughout the kingdom. Whigs, Tories, Anglicans, Dissenters, and even some Catholics increasingly grew critical of James. Hearing reports of local disobedience among his subjects and a possible Dutch invasion, James backtracked. Hoping to gain Tory support, he withdrew some of his bitterly opposed acts and summoned a new Parliament. In June 1688, his wife gave birth to a son. This inflamed fears in England of a continuing succession of Catholic kings.

The English Bill of Rights (1689) The following excerpt from the English Bill of Rights includes the comprehensive political settlement of the Glorious Revolution. 1. That the pretended power of suspending the laws or the execution of the laws by regal [the king’s] authority without consent of Parliament is illegal; 2. That the pretended power of dispensing with laws or the execution of laws by regal authority . . . is illegal; 3. That the commission for erecting the late Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes, and all other commissions and courts of like nature, are illegal and pernicious [destructive]; 4. That levying money [taxes] for or to the use of the Crown by pretense of prerogative [king’s authority], without grant of Parliament . . . is illegal; 5. That it is the right of the subjects to petition the king, and all commitments [imprisonment] and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal; 6. That the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with the consent of Parliament, is against law; 7.

That the subjects which are Protestants may have arms for their defense suitable to their conditions and as allowed by law; 8. That elections of members of Parliament ought to be free; 9. That the freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament; 10. That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted; 11. That jurors ought to be duly impaneled and returned, and jurors which pass upon men in trials for high treason ought to be freeholders [property owners]; 12. That all grants and promises of fines and forfeitures of particular persons before conviction are illegal and void; 13. And that for redress of grievances, and for the amending, strengthening and preserving of the laws, Parliaments ought to be held frequently. William of Orange Days after the birth of James’ son, a small group of Whig and Tory nobles sent a message to Protestant Holland’s Prince William of Orange. He was married to James’ Protestant daughter, Mary.

The nobles asked William to intervene against James, apparently hoping to force him to stop his pro-Catholic and dictatorial rule. William was putting together a coalition of Protestant and even Catholic countries against Louis XIV, who wanted to dominate all of Europe. William quickly saw the advantage of adding England to his coalition. On November 5, 1688, William landed in England with more than 20,000 soldiers carried by a fleet larger than the Spanish Armada that had threatened England 100 years before. William’s army consisted of Dutch soldiers, English soldiers, and others who had fled to Holland. James was shocked to learn that his English subjects cheered when William landed. Many waved swords and sticks with oranges stuck on them to show they were with him. Some of James’ soldiers deserted and joined William as he led his invading army to London. Violent uprisings against James and his government took place throughout England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and even colonial America. Mobs attacked Catholic chapels, schools, printing shops, and the houses of James’ government officials and tax collectors. Mobs also attacked his Protestant Dissenter allies and some of James’ quartered troops.

Fearing the fate of his beheaded father, Charles I, James ordered his army disbanded, cancelled his call for a new Parliament, and escaped to France as William neared London. The disorder continued for several months. James made one last stand. In the spring of 1689, he landed in Ireland with a fleet of ships and soldiers supplied by Louis XIV to join an army of Irish Catholics. They had besieged Protestant colonists and soldiers in Northern Ireland. William led an army against James and defeated his Catholic force in the summer of 1690. James then returned to France. The Settlement and English Bill of Rights A new Parliament, divided between Whigs and Tories, assembled in January 1689. The two parties debated who should be the new king. The Whigs favored William. Most Tories, objecting to Parliament “electing” a king, wanted James’ Protestant daughter, Mary, as queen. A few Tories argued that James had only “deserted” not “abdicated” the throne, so he should return under certain conditions. When William landed in England he said he was not interested in the throne.

But in early 1689, he issued an ultimatum: Either Parliament proclaim him king or he would take his army back to Holland and leave England undefended and in chaos. The Whigs and Tories finally settled on a compromise. William and Mary would technically rule as co-monarchs, but William would take charge of the government. In February 1689, Parliament offered William and Mary the crown. At their crowning, Parliament presented William and Mary with a Declaration of Rights. This condemned the illegal acts of James, placed limits on royal authority, called for “frequent” Parliaments, and listed specific rights of Parliament and the people. Nevertheless, the monarchy kept most of its traditional powers. Parliament later amended the Declaration to say that anyone who “shall profess the popish religion [Catholicism] or shall marry a papist, shall be excluded and be forever incapable to inherit, possess, or enjoy the crown and government of this realm. . . .” This requirement still exists today. Parliament passed into law the amended Declaration with the consent of King William III. This document became the English Bill of Rights.

The Whigs, the main supporters of the Glorious Revolution, gained the confidence of William and passed into law the Toleration Act of 1689. This allowed moderate Protestant Dissenters, but not Catholics, to worship publicly in licensed meeting places. The Test Acts, however, still excluded the Dissenters along with Catholics from holding public office. William did not strongly enforce the laws that continued to discriminate against Protestant Dissenters and Catholics. Many Dissenters evaded the Test Acts by taking Communion in an Anglican Church once a year just to qualify for public office. Catholics worshipped pretty much as they pleased. William also appointed bishops to the Church of England who favored a more open-minded policy toward toleration. But England still had a long way to go to before achieving true religious freedom. For Discussion and Writing 1. Which one of the following do you think was the main winner and which was the main loser in the Glorious Revolution? Use evidence from the article to back up your choice. A. Monarchy

Question: Which English king was overthrown after 'The Glorious Revolution'?
Answer: JAMES II